Tupiza to Uyuni - Jeep Tour

Tuesday 22nd Febuary

Checked out of HI Valle Hermosa hostel in Tupiza and made my way to Tupiza Tours office to meet Anne and Limor for the start of our 4 day jeep tour to Uyuni. Was really looking forward to this tour .. and had heard so much about it from other backpackers. Had already met so many other backpackers in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile who started their tour from there, but I heard that starting it in Tupiza, Bolivia was even better as you have a 4 day tour rather than 3 days and you get to see alot more.

Myself, Anne and Limor met at the Tupiza tours office and we also met Mejorana from Canada. Our guide and driver was Victor and our cook for the 4 days was Margali.

Limor, Mejorana, Anne and me ... before we started out on the jeep tour:

Day 1 of the tour was spent driving south west from Tupiza stopping at small towns along the way. We were literally in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road in the mountains. Some spectacular views which looked like the ´wild west´.

We decided to drive further on Day 1, just so we wouldnt have to get up so early the next day. We were due to spend our first night in a place called San Anotonio de Lipez but we travelled a few hours further and stayed in a place called Quetena Chico. The route here was really difficult and at times I thought we were going to be stuck in the jeep for the night. It was freezing cold and snowing outside so the conditions for driving were really bad.

We eventually got to our ´residencial´ about 19:30 that evening. A very long first day travelling. All the places we stayed at for the entire 3 nights of the trip were very basic ... no heating, and limited electricity and sometimes no working toilets (i.e. a hole in the ground with a bucket of water)!

Some random pics from Day 1 of the Jeep tour:

Day 2 (Wednesday 23rd) was supposed to be very long day but as we had travelled and seen so much yesterday it was a shorter day in the jeep ... we continued to travel south close to the mountains with the Chilean border. More amazing scenery :

After lunch in the afternoon, we visited geysers and some thermal baths:

Late in the afternoon we stopped at a small town called Huaylljara for the night.

Day 3 - Thursday 24th

Impossible to put up all the pictures here from the scenery and lanscape from Day 3. We drove past the 5 Lagunas, Arbol de Piedra and some volcanos en route to Uyuni ... heres a few random pics from the day:

In the afternoon we stopped off in Uyuni for an hour before travelling further north to a town called Colcahni located on the outskirts of the Salt Flats. We stayed in a hostel made of ´salt´ .... the walls, tables, beds .. everything!

We had a choice ... we could all get up early (around 05:00) next morning and watch the sunrise or alternatively we could all go to the edge of the Salt flats on Thursday evening and watch the sunset instead. We all opted to watch the sunset. Group pictures at sunset:

Day 4 - Friday 25th Febuary

We spent the morning visiting the salt flats again .... this time driving further out onto the salt flats. This was my third visit to Salt flats in South America in the last 2 months. Had visited them already in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile and also Salinas Grandes in Argentina. Was still amazing and we took some great pictures.

We all went back to our residencial in Colchani for lunch before we headed back to Uyuni and said goodbye to Margali and Victor.

I made my way over to HI hostel in Uyuni but they were booked out so I checked into a residencial next door ... private room for 30 Bolivianos a night. I wasnt too pushed as I was only staying the one night.

Limor, Anne and Mejorana were all getting connecting buses later that evening so from Uyuni I was back travelling on my own again.

Spent the afternoon in a very slow internet cafe and walking around Uyuni. Not much to do here really .. one night is definitely enough to spend here. Some pictures of Uyuni:

Next morning, I made my way to the bus station and got a bus to Potosi (200km - 5 hours).